Hi guys

Hi guys
Just saying hello I'm not a newbie but been out the growing scene for a few years. I do have a account here but I cannot to the life of me remember the details ‍.
Anyway with lockdown and given a small unused tent and 4 pot wilma system I decided to plant some purple gelato seeds. They feisty haha.
On this grow I've swapped my usual biobizz for the canna range which I've used before but not in many years and I got a full set of additives with starter pack and I have to say the canna start and rhizatonic are a banging combo 2 week old seedling already 3rd set of leaves and 2 days into clay pebbles and going into half strength of veg A-B.
I do have a issue and it's bugging me as I can usually suss most issues but my ph keeps rising I know rhizatonic can raise pH but once mixed and pH is stabilised it should be good! I use vitalink pH down Ive never had to raise it and my water is pH 7.8 obviously with rhizatonic that raises to about 8.2ish If I mix a full 30 litres however I find if I mix 10 litre batches for some reason I don't need to lower the pH as much! That's great but my ph is raising daily I aim for around 6 that way I have a bit of leverage either way but I know as most of you guys will that the littler amount of pH down solution is best and no way is it any good lowering daily or even every couple of days.
I'm probably in the wrong thread as I started by saying hello and ended asking questions but I'd be grateful for any input

Some clay pebbles make the pH rise alot, I had to soak mine in the bath overnight and had to pH it every other hour because it shot back up.

I had my Wilma buckets filled with them though , are yours the same?

If you don't then you can probably ignore this comment bud.

Forgot to say Welcome back lol.

29menace said:

Some clay pebbles make the pH rise alot, I had to soak mine in the bath overnight and had to pH it every other hour because it shot back up.

I had my Wilma buckets filled with them though , are yours the same?

If you don't then you can probably ignore this comment bud.

Click to expand...

Yeah soaked for the usual 48hrs changed the water probably 10 times until water was clear and dust free. That was my first thought but no dust or clay residue in tank.

29menace said:

Forgot to say Welcome back lol.

Click to expand...

Thanks pal forgot about all the great advice to

29menace said:

Some clay pebbles make the pH rise alot, I had to soak mine in the bath overnight and had to pH it every other hour because it shot back up.

I had my Wilma buckets filled with them though , are yours the same?

If you don't then you can probably ignore this comment bud.

Click to expand...

Not filled but full and only using clay. I've used them before but I then went organic and soil so been s few years I also took out the dripper steaks and made some ring drippers as imo this give a mores even feed but o don't see that causing a issue?

It was the only thing I could think of , some nutes do require pH daily but I haven't used canna so don't know how there lineup works.
Is canna supposed to buffer good?

29menace said:

Some clay pebbles make the pH rise alot, I had to soak mine in the bath overnight and had to pH it every other hour because it shot back up.

I had my Wilma buckets filled with them though , are yours the same?

If you don't then you can probably ignore this comment bud.

Click to expand...

You know it can only be the pebbles, i know canna are a very well respected company and once stabilised should be good. You right it only points to points to the media. Ok I can't flush them again so what did you do? Bit difficult to flush them again!

29menace said:

It was the only thing I could think of , some nutes do require pH daily but I haven't used canna so don't know how there lineup works.
Is canna supposed to buffer good?

Click to expand...

You know I've not used canna in 20 year

Willi82 said:

You know I've not used canna in 20 year

Click to expand...

Fat fingers lol 10 years do now they have a few additives I'm told once buffered they shouldn't flux to much if any. I've had amazing results with the canna start and rhizatonic combo but there nutes are expensive compared to others. I've had great results with biobizz so this is a not of a test for me also but as I said so far so good other than pH which I think your solution seems pretty plausible tbf.

Willi82 said:

You know it can only be the pebbles, i know canna are a very well respected company and once stabilised should be good. You right it only points to points to the media. Ok I can't flush them again so what did you do? Bit difficult to flush them again!

Click to expand...

Before I added the clay pebbles to the Wilma pot I had them in the bath untill the pH stopped rising , I'm not sure what to suggest except maybe go back to the drip and that way it won't rush over all the pebbles as fast so pH hike might take longer if you know what I mean.

In my Wilma I left dripper on 24hrs a day ,do you do the same or is it timed.

29menace said:

Before I added the clay pebbles to the Wilma pot I had them in the bath untill the pH stopped rising , I'm not sure what to suggest except maybe go back to the drip and that way it won't rush over all the pebbles as fast so pH hike might take longer if you know what I mean.

In my Wilma I left dripper on 24hrs a day ,do you do the same or is it timed.

Click to expand...

You won't believe what I just did? Exactly that just popped the blue drippers bk in for a week see how it goes. I've only added 1.5ml of buffer and will be doing todays tests in a hour. Great advice buddy. I can't remember how to like ya post lol

29menace said:

Before I added the clay pebbles to the Wilma pot I had them in the bath untill the pH stopped rising , I'm not sure what to suggest except maybe go back to the drip and that way it won't rush over all the pebbles as fast so pH hike might take longer if you know what I mean.

In my Wilma I left dripper on 24hrs a day ,do you do the same or is it timed.

Click to expand...

24hrs a day? Whoa no I do feed 6 times in 18hrs for 15mins which is a schedule I used in the past. It hadn't occured to me 24hrs! You had no problems?

Willi82 said:

24hrs a day? Whoa no I do feed 6 times in 18hrs for 15mins which is a schedule I used in the past. It hadn't occured to me 24hrs! You had no problems?

Click to expand...

Yeah I left mine on bro and they were fine. The constant flow will help the pebbles absorb the fluid quicker imo and stabilise pH faster but for the first few days u might find youl have to sort the pH a few more times than normal but I'd say get it out the way now so your back to normal in a few days.

Or put the pots in the bath if possible and pour ph'd solution through them (lots of it) that way the Rez pH won't rise by the runoff.

Either way will be a hastle I guess but I can't see it taking long before the pH of the pebbles drops to the level u want.

29menace said:

Yeah I left mine on bro and they were fine. The constant flow will help the pebbles absorb the fluid quicker imo and stabilise pH faster but for the first few days u might find youl have to sort the pH a few more times than normal but I'd say get it out the way now so your back to normal in a few days.

Or put the pots in the bath if possible and pour ph'd solution through them (lots of it) that way the Rez pH won't rise by the runoff.

Either way will be a hastle I guess but I can't see it taking long before the pH of the pebbles drops to the level u want.

Click to expand...

I'm eager to try this! Was you using a 50% mix still or lower,higher ?

Do you mean nutrient strength at half mix?
I can take a look if that's what u meant coz I still have the journal somewhere.

29menace said:

Do you mean nutrient strength at half mix?
I can take a look if that's what u meant coz I still have the journal somewhere.

Click to expand...

Yeah. I run mind at 50 as a happened to bump into a biobizz rep who told me that the ratios given are to strong and always done ok. A rough ec of 1-1.3 pushing it up to 1.8 through flowering that roughly 50% nute
solution to what's recommend by most manufacturers who really just want ya money so use more buy more I guess plus want to turn it round reasonably quick so don't have time to increase mute strength over time. Does that make sense/sound similar?

Yeah I hit 1.6to1.8ec too bro , do u have both drippers the system came with yeah? I read in my journal that the pH balanced out better with the 2.5litres an hour dripper when running them 24hrs.

The guy who told me about it said this

29menace said:

Yeah I hit 1.6to1.8ec too bro , do u have both drippers the system came with yeah? I read in my journal that the pH balanced out better with the 2.5litres an hour dripper when running them 24hrs.

The guy who told me about it said this

View attachment 4546688

Click to expand...

Sweet for that. Yes I have black set for Coco and blue for clay . 2.5l/hwould be black I'm sure blue is bout 30l/h but would need to check so black not blue best change them when I swap over so I'll note that down in journal. Great stuff pal thanks

No worries buddy , will help anytime I can if I can so don't hesitate to ask if anything pops it's head up.

Good luck , will keep an eye out for ya and stay safe.

Take it easy